Community Awards 2013: Part Two

Welcome to part two of our insane attempt at feigning interest in what you have to say. It’s time to delve even deeper into the best games that this year had to offer. In case you missed part one, check it out here. Read it now, we’ll wait. It’s mildly uninteresting.

To reiterate, the response from all of you was great across all categories. We had 40 voters in total which is perhaps the most we’ve ever had in three years of community awards. Gives yourselves a pat on the back. Or don’t because that’s actually a lot trickier than it looks.

This is the final half of our community awards so we’ve left some of the juicier ones for the finale. Below are the results of the following categories: Best New IP, Most Disappointing, Best Story, Most Anticipated Titles of 2014, Game of the Year.

Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

Best New IP

Winner: The Last of Us

Prepare for The Last of Us to have a recurring role in these awards, in case part one didn’t already tip you off to that. It’s a telling sign of the state the industry is in when there are scarcely any new IPs worth mentioning. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. We need new IPs to do something different or simply offer a fresh experience and The Last of Us might not have delivered hat (zombies are hardly ground-breaking) but it handled this familiar ground in such a great way.

The Last of Us won with an overwhelming 29/33 votes. Its nearest competition were Path of Exile on 2 votes and a tie between Deadpool and Injustice: Gods Among Us on 1 vote.

Most Disappointing

Loser: Aliens: Colonial Marines

Not necessarily the worst game but the most disappointing is one that landed so far below our expectations or the expectations set by developers that we are left feeling completely underwhelmed. There were a few choice nominees this year but of course nothing could top the steaming pile of lies of broken promises that was Aliens: Colonial Marines.

The game won, or rather lost, with 14/31 votes and some ways behind were Beyond: Two Souls on 7 votes and Gears of War: Judgment on 5 votes.

Best Story

Winner: The Last of Us

Surprised? No, of course not this is the The Last of Us show after all. The best stories are defined by different things whether it be a complex narrative, a sucker punch ending or simply great characters. We had some pretty great stories told to us this year.

The Last of Us won with 19/36 votes. Runners-up were BioShock: Infinite with 10 votes and Grand Theft Auto V with 5 votes.

The Most Anticipated Games of 2014

Of course we couldn’t force you to choose the singular game you’re most excited for in 2014. That’s like telling someone to go ahead and take whatever they want from a gourmet buffet but they can only take one food item. So instead we asked you to select your five (it ended up being six due to a tie) most anticipated games of 2014 and this is the list:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

inFamous: Second Son

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Titanfall

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Thief

Game of the Year

Winner: The Last of Us

With four category wins already under its belt it’s no surprise The Last of Us turned out to be the community game of the year. It’s my personal game of the year as well for a compelling narrative that delivered an emotionally charged experience filled with some great characters and solid gameplay to boot.

The Last of Us won with 22/40 votes with GTA V having only half as many on 11 votes and BioShock: Infinite way down on 5 votes.

With a massive 5/11 category wins, The Last of Us was clearly the big winner amongst all of you with BioShock: Infinite being the closest thing it had to competition at 2 wins.

Thanks to all of you for participating and making these community awards possible. It’s been a great year and let’s hope next year is even better on the gaming front. We don’t much care whether your personal life improves or not. That’s it for Community Awards 2013, next up are the official eGamer Awards 2013.

Have to agree wholeheartedly with you guys, Last of Us is also my personal Game of the Year, with honourable mentions to Bioshock Infinite and even Assassin’s Creed 4 (Honestly the finest pirate sim ever created :P)